Good News: Americans With No Religion Greatly Outnumber White Evangelicals

[trotsky]

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/05/the-irreligious-now-outnumber-white-evangelicals-in-america.html

(Note: this is another report on the outcome of the study I posted here.)

It’s relatively well-known that the portion of the U.S. population with no religious affiliation has been steadily increasing recently. And for those paying attention to research, it’s also been obvious for a while that conservative evangelicals were beginning to lose “market share” after years of mocking their mainline Protestant cousins of “dying” because of insufficiently rigorous theology and moral strictures.

But now comes a new set of data from years of polling by ABC News and the Washington Post that puts these trends together in a way that might bust some old preconceptions. Between 2003 and 2017, the percentage of adult Americans professing “no religion” grew from 12 percent to 21 percent. And at the same time, the portion of the population made up by white evangelicals dropped from 21 percent to 13 percent. Indeed, the white evangelical population dropped even faster than the white non-evangelical population (which shrank from 17 percent to 11 percent), and the two groups are converging in size.

Among younger Americans, the trends are even starker. In 2003, only 19 percent of adults under 30 professed “no religion.” That percent rose to 35 percent in 2017. That’s compared to only 22 percent who identify with any sort of Protestantism.

...If the irreligious ever get serious about flexing their muscles politically, a lot could change in this country, particularly on church-state separation issues. In the meantime, white evangelicals need to get a more realistic sense of their own trajectory, and stop lording it over other people of faith who share their less-than-robust membership trends.

[Me.]

1. Are They Voting?

Speaking out?

[Major Nikon]

4. The voting advantage of white evangelicals is particularly evident in smaller elections

The evidence of this is the prominence of biblical literalists among school boards in the South. That's why we teach historical revisionist bullshit like young earth creationism and the Civil War wasn't fought over slavery.

The GOTV effort in the nuttiest of churches is quite strong with pastors preaching from the pulpit that followers are commanded by god to go to the voting booth and force their nuttiness on the rest of the population, which is what evangelicalism is.

[Me.]

7. That Shouldn't Stop The Non-Religs

if they are in the majority. I suppose it's a matter of organization and I hope they do it.

[Major Nikon]

10. GOTV is far more powerful than having a majority

We live in a society that is lucky to get half the eligible voters to show up in even presidential elections. Local elections often hover in the 15% range. Texas is a majority minority state, yet is solidly red. Virtually all demographics that favor progressiveness are almost exactly opposite of voter turnout. Having a majority isn't a problem. Getting that majority to show up at the polls is a huge problem. That's why the GOP only has to play to their most highly loyal minority while the Democrats have to try to please everyone.

The biggest problem the GOP has is they have to rely on getting an increasingly larger turnout out of a shrinking minority. If it were simply an issue of majority rules, the GOP would have gone the way of the dodo a long time ago.

[Mariana]

11. In what world is 21% a majority? nt.

[Me.]

13. In Proportion to Evangelicals

[Mariana]

14. Almost all of the rest are other flavors of Christians.

Most Christians vote Republican, it is not confined to just Evangelical Christians.

It varies state to state, too. My state has a higher percentage of non-religious people than average, and there are very few Evangelicals. We pretty reliably elect Democrats. In some place like Alabama, the situation is reversed, and we all know what happens in their elections. The only way a Democrat wins is for the Republicans to run someone as disgusting as Roy Moore.

[askyagerz]

6. If a portion of them aren't voting

I bet they will be starting somewhere around Novemeber.

[NeoGreen]

2. Woohoo!...(nt)

[Lordquinton]

3. Hope the trend grows

Good news indeed.

[awesomerwb1]

5. Unfortunately

the white Evangelicals all vote.

[Mariana]

17. Not always.

In the Alabama special election for Senator, a bunch of the white evangelicals couldn't bring themselves to vote for that perverted piece of shit Roy Moore. Of course, they couldn't bring themselves to vote against him, either, so they stayed home. Fortunately, it was just enough for the Democrat Jones to barely squeak through with a win

[sinkingfeeling]

8. So why are we allowing 13% to turn this democracy into a sh***y theocracy?

[Mariana]

15. Because a lot of their fellow Christians vote Republican right along with them.

And Christians, as a whole, are a huge majority.

[MineralMan]

9. And then, there are the Christians who aren't actually able to define

what Christianity means to them. They're not sure what parts of the Bible are really true, and what parts are simply metaphorical. I'm not sure what to make of that group, really. Perhaps they're moving toward the "no religion" group.

[procon]

12. That matches up with the frenzy of activity from christians who are pressuring

politicians to get the government to pass laws that force everyone into submitting to their beliefs and religious taboos. It is the only way that organized religion can survive the growing loss of disciples. They've already got the benefit from zero taxes and partisan political favoritism is allowed. The whole concept of the separation of church and state is being targeted by a well coordinated agenda of stacking the courts with christian activists who rule to the favor of more pro-religious laws.

[safeinOhio]

16. Why conservatives want more jails

from the Humanist . com


Unsurprisingly, at 0.10 percent, atheism still represents a tiny percentage of the religious identities of inmates in federal prison, though that number has risen slightly since 2013, when atheists made up 0.07 percent of the federal prison population. One might speculate that this increase is related to the increase in the percentage of the US population in general that identifies as atheist. According to the Pew Research Center’s Religious Landscape Survey, the percentage of people in the United States who identify as atheists has jumped from 1.6 percent in 2012 to 3.1 percent in 2014. However, Mehta points out that the percentage of atheists in prison is significantly lower than the percentage of atheists in the general population.

[guillaumeb]

18. Why is this good news?

[trotsky]

19. White evangelicals form Trump's solid base.

Non-believers are one of the most Democratic voting blocs.

Do the math. You agree it's a good thing to weaken Trump and the Republicans, right?

RIGHT?